Sometimes
by casuallllfollower
Summary: He loves her. He loves her not.


Hermione's fingers worried over the card in her hands, eyes glancing at it, her lip between her teeth.

Harry sat across from her in the small cafe they always grabbed tea at on Sundays, and he looked mildly worried for her.

She couldn't look at that face, his hands squeezed between his knees like a small child who didn't know how to buffer the difference between arguing parents. The window was a more suitable option, the street filled with passers-by who were all oblivious as to who they were. Then the cafe itself, more people ignorant to the two at the high-top, one with a scar others could recognize leagues away.

Hermione went back to looking at the small card folded in half, every part of her body shaking.

"Do you love him?"

Bringing one of her hands up, she immediately began to chew on her nail, looking at Harry in melancholy. Hermione nodded, the move of her head heavy with her curls.

"Does he love you?"

She snorted.

Everything about her relationship with Severus Harry was blatantly aware of. She went to him more often than not when she was crying or confused, and while she felt bad for using him, he came to her equally as much for advice and questions that needed immediate answers. What else were friends for?

"Sometimes," she answered.

Harry nodded in agreement, reaching out for his tea and taking a huge gulp of it, and unamused he repeated, "Sometimes."

Hermione laid in bed that morning, her head heavy from the night's previous activities, and she did not dare move for fear of waking the man surrounding her in his embrace, warmth covering her where sheets did not.

One of his hands was most certainly wrapped tightly about her waist, and the other was underneath the pillow that her head rested on, his hair tickling the back of her neck. It was a blissful feeling, and sometimes she guiltily craved it more than what led up to it.

The room was always dark in the morning, the first time making her think she'd awoken in the middle of the night, but Hermione knew now. She had an impeccable internal clock, and it was roughly seven then.

The surprising event of that morning was the way he nuzzled back into her when he awoke, pulling her already close body flush to his. She'd almost melted.

Hermione looked up at Harry and sighed, "What do I do?"

Harry leaned back, looking much more casual than before.

"What do you want to do?"

Shaking her head profusely, Hermione sat up in-straight, the card in her hands slamming down onto table, none of the muggles seeming to care all that much.

"What I _want _to do is the wrong answer."

She thought it might be a nice surprise to go down to the experimental laboratory floor where Severus worked, on her lunch, but Hermione found herself ignored for almost the whole of it. He had seemed little interested in her, yet that same night she'd been invited over and politely declined because of his iciness. He was hard to pin down on good days, and on bad days she might as well not even try.

"If it's what you want to do, then why would it be wrong, Hermione?" Harry was being the Devil on her shoulder, but only she knew Severus, and the small card in her hand wasn't exactly ideal.

"Because of the way he acts, Harry. It's just not right. I meant it when I said he loves me sometimes… if he even loves me at all. You know all the times over the past two years I've been blown off or completely ignored in the first place."

Harry looked sympathetic, but he grabbed at his tea, seeming to think a moment before formulating a response.

"And yet you both keep coming back to each other. You haven't seen him with other women, and the Prophet surely would've if you were being oblivious-"

"He doesn't love me, Harry," she said suddenly, "I said it a few weeks back… no response."

"But you got this?" He wondered, plucking the card from her loose fingers, prying it open to reveal the small ring that had been charmed inside of it.

"It was his grandmother's, or that's what he said anyways. It's got old magic in it or something along those lines." Hermione's passiveness about the engagement ring seemed to perplex Harry.

"He said specifically old magic?"

Hermione nodded, confused as to why he was focusing on it so much, tugging the ring from its pedestal and looking about the cafe to make sure no muggles had seen him open the card or tug a whole ring out of something flat.

"Well, if it truly is old magic, there's a lot I've learned from the Aurors around me about stuff like that." He put the ring down and pursed his lips.

"And?"

"Old magic was a long time ago, obviously, when things were a little more populous and there wasn't so much… pureblood stigma. So, rings with old magic like this were handed down if only the person proposing truly loved the person they would propose to. It will only go on if the other person loves them in return."

Hermione scoffed, "So you're saying that if I put that thing on and it doesn't hex me six ways to Sunday, that I love him and he loves me?"

"Well," Harry said lowly, "Not really. The fact he was even allowed to give it to you means he loves you."

Feeling slightly duped, Hermione took in a large breath, picking up the ring and examining it.

So… he did love her? That didn't explain the traumatic experiences she'd had of waking up alone or being shut out for days on end.

Now her stomach churned, and her head began to swim. She had no idea what she felt for him.

"_Do_ you love him?" Harry prodded, not convinced of her earlier answer.

"I don't know."

"Find out."

Hermione picked up the ring nervously. She didn't want her time with Severus to end suddenly if this ring refused to go on her finger, but she also wasn't sure she could just up and marry the bloke either.

She was torn.

Regardless, she wanted to know how she felt, and so without any further hesitation, she put the ring on, holding back a sob when it slid onto her finger without hesitation.

"Oh, Merlin, I do love him."

Her resolve came quickly, acknowledging the shift of magic as it sized to her finger, gleaming brightly. She wanted to tell him yes, and her smile must have said it.

She looked up at Harry who grinned at her. "I made all that up, by the way. The smile on your face clues me in, you're for him. That's good. If you love him, and he gave you a ring, I see no reason why you shouldn't say yes. Obviously his commitment is more solid than you thought. All the old magic can do is resize the ring."

Hermione gaped.

"You twat!"

Harry ducked the balled up napkin she threw his way swiftly.

"Go tell him."

"Harry Potter I will be the end of you for good," she said, packing up her things and taking the shifty card holder with her.

"If Voldemort can't kill me, fat chance you could."

He had to dodge another napkin.

•

Hermione found Severus promptly, hunched over a potion in the bottom of the ministry on off hours as usual. He never changed, besides his insipid mood swings.

"Severus?"

She hadn't seen him since he'd asked, and this a few days later.

"Not now."

So it was one of those moods?

Well, Hermione has vowed to stop letting him do this to them, especially since she was wearing his ring.

"Really? Severus, I think this time you shouldn't let your cold attitude come to light."

He turned to her, looking perturbed like the first time she hadn't given in to his demand for loneliness.

She shot her hand up, revealing the glimmering stone of her left ring finger.

His eyes changed immediately.

"Gods, I didn't think you'd say yes."

"Surely not. I've been attached to you since the first time we shagged, why wouldn't I say yes?"

He shook his head, everything else forgotten as he stood and rushed towards her, putting her face between his hands.

She rested hers atop his, feeling that this was a favorable outcome.

"You're too good for me. I'm still a Death Eater, I've got the scars to prove it. Every time we have a good night I feel like I stole it from you… as though I were taking something away from you, and I'd push you away in the gross cycle we've both come to know. I _tried_ to drive you away."

"Bastard," she commented fondly.

"Yes well, I never dreamed you would say yes if I proposed. I figured that having you say no would finally induce the inevitable." Severus paused for a moment before saying, "I love you."

"And I, you."

Merlin, and she thought he didn't!

He shuffled their hands, taking up her left and admiring the look of his ring on her finger.

"This would look better nowhere else."

"Well, I'm just glad it didn't hex me when I put it on!"

She watched his expression change, "Why would it do such a thing?"

"It wouldn't," she said with a happy grin, "Harry tricked me into admitting my true feelings for you to him by claiming the ring had certain powers to it."

"Well, I am very glad he did so, then."

"Me too, Severus, me too."


End file.
